This invention relates to musical drum construction. In particular, the invention herein employs a principle of physics to achieve a variation of tensioning between the upper and lower heads of said drum without physical attachments of lug hardware or piercing of the drum shell in any manner and thus allowing the shell to vibrate freely.
Musical drums are found in numerous varieties the world over and since the earliest times. Evidence of drums date back to the third millennium in Egyptian art of 1800 B.C. and drums were mentioned in Chinese poems of 1135 B.C.
A conventional musical drum generally consists of two heads (diaphragms or skins) on a cylindrical body. This construction allows the vibration on one head to be transferred through the air inside the drum shell to the other head and cause such other head to also vibrate. The drum heads or skins are held in place over the end of the drum shell by drum hoops or rims.
A plural of turning screws pass through apertures in each rim and are screwed into fixed brackets which are mounted at uniformly spaced positions around the drum shell. Tuning of the drum is accomplished by turning the screws into the bracket. This operation serves to draw the drum rim down over the end of the drum shell, thereby applying tension to the drum skin, which is thus stretched over the end of the drum shell.
In most conventional drum systems, the drum rims, which hold the drum head in place, are connected to the drum shell by direct physical attachment. This attachment generally involves piercing, i.e. drilling holes into the drum shell at numerous points. This is illustrated in many U.S. patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 274,900; 1,284,526; 1,344,344; 1,420,233; 2,548,271; 3,019,685; 3,435,723; 3,439,573; 3,533,324; 3,647,931; 3,724,313; and 3,911,779.
The main source of sound from a conventional drum is the vibration of the drum head as a result of being struck by the drumstick or the like sympathetic induced vibration in the diametrically opposed drum head. Ignorance in the design of conventional drums systems is the utilization of the shell as source of residual vibration to add to the tone and output of the drum, if the shell were to be allowed to freely resonate. The aforementioned direct physical attachment of the drum hoops to the shell serves to dampen and eliminate shell vibration.
It seems that there should be a simple solution to achieve a free-floating shell that can resonate without direct physical attachment. One way would be to place the drum head and rims on opposite ends of the shell and link them together directly therefore suspending the shell in a sandwich effect. This would give you a shell that will resonate freely but the ability to tension the upper and lower heads to different degrees of rigidity to each other would be lost. Many previous attempts to achieve a true suspended shell and independent tension have failed.
Australian Patent Specification No. 4,295,405. Date: Oct. 20, 1981. Donald Sleishman (U.S. patent application Ser. No. 82,462) Concerns a musical drum in which the loading means attaching the drum head to the shell is connected to the shell at various points on the inner surface of the shell. This design requires piercing the drum shell as clearly shown in FIGS. 3, 4 and 6.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,714,002. Date: Dec. 22, 1987. Cleland uses a pair of overlapping hoops that hold the head in place and the inner hoop FIG. 4 Part No. 60 displays a notch. FIG.4. No. 45, 46 that receives the end of the shell and thereby becomes an extension of the shell. The shell never contacts the head directly.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,334,458. Date: Jun. 15, 1982. Grauso. Displays a band FIG. 4 No. 20, that inserts into a notch in the shell No. 32 and contact the shell therefore not maintaining a free floating shell.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,357,838. Date: Oct. 25, 1994. Kurosaki. Fastening elements are connected to each other by long tubes, which are directly and mechanically connected to the shell.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,869,146. Date: Sep. 26, 1989. Bonsor. An intermediate hoop No. 16 notched No. 18 to receive shell. Shell does not contact head directly.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,087. Date: Sep. 5, 1995. Hawes et al. Once again intermediate hoops No. 12 upper and No. 11 lower notched No. 13 to except drum shell. Shell does not contact head directly.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,413,002. Date: May 9, 1995. Sleishman shows a drum having an outer band which is bolted to the center part of the shell as shown in FIG. 6 Part 60, FIG. 4 Part 39 and FIG. 1 Part 15 attached to shell by bolt 16.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,526. Date: Feb. 18, 1986. Hoshino. In this drum anchors are mounted to the shell No. 41 by means of a screw through the shell No. 65. This is best seen in FIG. 3 Sheet 2 of 2.
Heretofore, no drum design provided for a truly suspended drum shell. It would be quite advantageous to have a drum shell freely suspended and without piercing of the shell as to provide enhanced sound emanating from the musical drum.
Objects and Advantages
Accordingly, besides the objects and advantages of the musical drum described in my above patents, several objects and advantages of the present invention are:
(a) Reduced cost of hardware.
(b) Reduced labor, no drilling of holes or mounting of hardware to shell.
(c) Larger variation in shell construction, thickness and materials not dictated by need to support mounting hardware and tension.
(d) Shape of shells, sides of shells does not need to be parallel.
(e) Quick exchange of shell; removing one rim and head allows shell to lift out while pre-tensioned head remains in tune.
(f) Reduce transmitted vibrations from upper rim to lower rim.
(g) Utilization of existing head, rim, shells and tension rods.
(h) Mounting of drums by attachment of plate to intermediate rim.
(i) Lighter weight drums
Further objects and advantages are that shells primarily constructed of plywood has been used for reasons of strength. Multiple layers of wood act to sound much in the same way as layers of clothing react to cold; they insulate, therefore reducing sound. Without the necessity to physically attach hardware to the shell, shells can now be made thinner and have a single ply and solid wood. Another disadvantage of physically attaching hardware to the shell is that the tension of the head and rim bearing on the tension mounts causes the shell to warp and go out of round.
References to the effect of the above-mentioned are as follows:
(a) Drum Shells, Where It All Starts by Woody Thompson, Shop Talk, Modern Drummer September 1993.
(b) Understanding Drums, by Paul Matcott, Shop Talk, Modern Drummer, June 1985.
(c) Drums: An Engineering Analysis: Part 1 and 2 by Spiros A. Psarris, Modern Drummer.
The application of a principle of physics to a musical drum whereby an equal tensioning of opposing heads is obtained without physical attachments or piercing of the drum shell in any manner.